where: Northern England, Irish Sea to the North Sea START/finish: Walney Island, Cumbria/Sunderland DISTANCE: 166 miles (official route 151 miles) PICTURES: Alamy and Paul Gillingham Walney to Wear in winter | GREAT RIDES

Great rides Walney to Wear in winter December days are short. This didn’t deter CTC member Paul Gillingham, son Joseph and friend John from attempting a coast to coast tour

inter tours in the UK carry we picked out a pebble each to toss into the risks. Days are short, colds North Sea, in the hope that we’d get there. W and ’flu are rampant, and Just beyond Barrow-in-Furness, we the weather can be appalling. So, on the paused to admire the sandstone ruins face of it, a trip across the North of England of Furness Abbey, said to be the second from the Irish to the North Seas in the first richest abbey in England after Fountains. week in December seemed a daft idea. But We had two punctures in the first ten miles, winter riding has benefits that summer lacks: and feeling nervous we bought an extra tourism is nonexistent, smaller roads are innertube each at Gills, a bike shop in the empty, fields are newly ploughed, leafless pretty village of Ulverston. Round the corner trees reveal their architectural beauty, winter from the shop, we were surprised to pass DO IT YOURSELF light can be stunning, and you don’t always a sign for the Laurel and Hardy Museum: We took a morning train from ride in wind, hail or heavy rain. In any case, Ulverston was the birthplace of Stan Laurel. Guildford to Waterloo, cycled to it was a big birthday for me and I wanted to We were skirting the Lake District. The Euston, then took the train to mark it with a big event. steep Bigland Hill as we left Penny Bridge Barrow-in-Furness, followed by a With me on the ride were cycling buddy was a killer, our first vertical challenge. I short ride to Walney Island, John and my son, Joseph, who had flown usually make it a point of principle never to arriving after dark. From over from Toronto. We had taken the train walk up hills, but John and I succumbed; Sunderland, the train took us to from Euston to Barrow-in-Furness. As we left Joseph, with a young man’s legs, sailed up. King’s Cross via Newcastle. We the station in the dark and pedalled towards At Cartmel, a picturesque Cumbrian village, rode to Waterloo, then boarded the train for Guildford, avoiding Walney Island, the wind was rising. we were tempted to stop for lunch but knew rush-hour. Bike reservations were Arriving at the slightly seedy Castle we had to press on to Grange-over-Sands. needed for the main lines. House Hotel facing the Irish Sea, the gale Much chastened by the climb up Bigland, unleashed its fury. It was difficult to stand we decided to leave the official route for a up. My Claud Butler was slammed against a few miles. Entering the village of Allithwaite, railing. Later, our hostess at the hotel told us we passed the village postmistress the story of an elderly lady getting out of her delivering letters and asked her if there was car in the car park months before: she was a route that avoided hills. ‘Don’t come to bowled over eight times, breaking bones. Cumbria if you don’t want hills,’ she said.

After the storm Four o’clock darkness We dreaded the next morning, but, In fact, the hills were more down than amazingly, the storm had dissipated and the up. We passed the elegant semis of the thousand windmills out at sea were fairly Edwardian resort of Grange-over-Sands and becalmed and bathed in sunlight. The tide headed straight for an atmospheric tea shop was way out, so rather than following the for lunch. It was getting on for two o’clock ritual of dipping our back wheels in the sea and we knew we had to be in Kendal Left: © David Norton / Alamy. Others by Paul Gillingham Paul by Others / Alamy. Norton © David Left:

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before dark at four. John disappeared and were a damned nuisance in summer and so Black Bull to show the locals how clever we re-joined us five minutes later with a list of were the originators of the W2W route. His southerners were in the pub quiz. We came taxi firms. ‘Just in case,’ he said. farm is on both sides of the road and when second from last. The waitress in the café called over the he moves his flock of 1,000 sheep or drives cook, herself a keen cyclist, who confirmed his tractor with wide loads through lanes Over the Pennines that the road to Kendal was comparatively hemmed in by dry-stone walls, there is no Next morning, we had a slap-up full English easy and we’d make it before dark. ‘But I passing space. – the excuse being that we needed fuel to have to tell you,’ she said ‘that a cyclist was When we reached the great viaduct at conquer the cold and the Pennines ahead. killed on the A590 yesterday morning going Beck Ford, John decided to take the direct We met up with John and set off on the third to work!’ route to Orton for an early lunch. Joseph day’s route from Kirkby Stephen to Barnard Determined to avoid the A590, we were and I stayed with the W2W trail, weaving Castle, which involved the Big One, the five- delighted to find the route out of Grange along winding roads across fast-flowing mile climb up Tan Hill. Green fields gave way followed the railway track along the mud becks over ancient packhorse bridges, with to wild moorland, and the higher we got the flats of Morecombe Bay, before heading the mighty Howgill Fell to our right. It started colder it got, with ice on the road. We were north in what turned out to be an easy ride to rain, which turned to hailstones. On with in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and via Gilpin Bridge and Sedgwick. the capes, but not for long. In front of a were mightily relieved when we reached the We made Kendal at 4pm just as it was roaring fire in the George Inn, Orton, we met top, marked by Tan Hill Inn, at 1,732 feet the getting dark and booked into the hostel. up again with John. highest pub in the UK. We were the only guests and so had a It was 2.30 by the time we left the fire and Inside, a log fire blazed and, apart from dorm each. The hostel is attached to the conviviality of the George, so we had one- a young couple, and the resident dog Old Brewery Arts Centre, where tables are and-a-half hours to reach Kirkby Stephen curled up on the hearth, we were the only placed inside old beer vats. before dark. It was only 12 miles, but there customers. We recognised the bartender were big hills en route. Although we were as a member of the winning pub quiz team Howgill Fell following the official route, there was no who thrashed us the night before. He said The second day’s route was from Kendal reason not to adapt it to our own purposes. we were lucky with the weather. The inn has to Kirkby Stephen. It was a sharp climb out On this basis, John left us at Raisbeck to been cut off because of snow, and a few of Kendal and we took a wrong turning, but take a direct route alongside the A685, while years ago 30 people were stranded there for after a few miles got back on track thanks Joseph and I stuck to the prescribed route four days. to the W2W map. The morning was bright over the magnificent moors. When we arrived at the inn, the heather- and sunny and the distant fells looked We reached Kirkby Stephen just before clad Pennine moorland was streaked with magnificent in the winter light. dark and booked into the hostel, a former shafts of sunlight. By the time we left 45 On a narrow road, we came head to head Methodist chapel, where we were again the minutes later, after a hearty lunch and a pint with a local farmer blocking our way in his only guests. John was up at Croft House, a of ‘Tan Hill Ewe Juice’ ale, the sky was black. 4x4 and stopped to chat. He said cyclists lovely B&B. After eating, we moved on to The John’s bike had been upended by the wind. Again there was the pressure of time. “green fields gave way to wild Could we make Barnard Castle before dark? The road from Tan Hill was thankfully a long moorland, and the higher we got the downhill swoop with a following wind, but colder it got, with ice on the road” we were horrified to discover after a few

38 cycle December/January 2014/2015 Walney to Wear in winter | GREAT RIDES

Previous page Sunset from Walney Island, Cumbria. The tide goes out a long way, making wheel-dipping awkward Far left Journey’s end at Wearmouth, after four days of cycling Next left Conditions on the moors were relatively benign. In recent years, people have been snowed in for days at Tan Hill Immediate left One benefit of winter touring is that the minor roads the W2W route follows are deserted

Fact File: Walney to Wear

Distance: 166 miles (official distance is 151 miles), averaging 40 miles per day.

Route: A well-signed route across England from Walney Island on the Irish Sea, crossing the Lake District and the Pennines to Sunderland on the North Sea.

Conditions: The weather threw everything at us except snow: sunny blue skies, gale-force winds, rain and sleet. miles that we had failed to notice a turn-off track and then along an intricate route – The roads were mainly country lanes with minimal traffic except for the occasional for the ‘official’ W2W route and would have easily followed thanks to the blue W2W crossing of A-roads. The off-road tracks to go back. John didn’t want to, so went on signs – through the back streets of Durham were easily manageable on touring bikes. ahead while Joseph and I turned back. to the city centre, which we reached just After some tough climbs, Joseph and before dark at 3.45, to find it heaving with Accommodation: A hotel on Walney I eventually reached Barnard Castle as pre-Christmas shoppers. Island, youth hostels in Kendal and Kirkby Stephen, and B&Bs in Barnard Castle darkness fell just after 4pm. Because of Next morning was cold but sunny, and and Durham. (Search for cycle-friendly the earlier wrong turning, we weren’t able the cathedral and castle looked gorgeous. accommodation at cyclistswelcome.co.uk) to reach Bowes, where we’d booked for I was hailed by a friendly verger who the night, so had to find somewhere in looked 65 but was actually 80. He’d been Map: NCN’s Walney to Wear Cycle Route Map (signed W2W 20, now re-signed as 70) Barnard Castle. My brake blocks had started a chorister during World War 2 and said squealing on the way down from Tan Hill, so the secret of staying youthful was, for him, I’m glad I had: Oilskin cycle cape, ear I asked a couple of lads where I could find a conducting everything from dance bands muffs, a woolly hat, and my bell/compass bike shop. Instead, they suggested Pauline’s to opera. He added that every village in the for when we missed a turning. toyshop just up the road. Sure enough, area once had a coal mine, and mentioned Next time I would… Try the route in Pauline had brake blocks. When I asked her two ex-pupils of The Chorister School who’d other seasons. Finish in Whitby instead where we could find accommodation, a lady avoided going down the mines – Tony Blair of Sunderland. I would also try to build in in the shop overheard and said ‘I’ve got a and Rowan Atkinson! visits to the Dock Museum in Barrow, the Laurel & Hardy Museum in Ulverston and nice B&B just around the corner.’ Within half Durham is surrounded by hills but our the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle. an hour we were comfortably installed. route towards Sunderland followed a tow- path along the river, where rowers were in Further info: cyclingW2W.info; or Cycleways to the sea training for the next Durham Regatta, the search for ‘sustrans walney-wear’ The next morning, after another full English ‘Henley of the North’. The route then followed and a quick visit to the castle, we set off miles of muddy track until we reached the sustrans w2w route for Durham in heavy rain. But true to form, suburbs of Sunderland, where traffic-free it soon eased off as we headed north-east paths took us through council estates and for Hamsterley Forest. To enter the forest, industrial areas. the road dropped down to a muddy track, The familiar blue W2W route 20 signs led but the surface improved over its four miles us through the docks – now trendified as to the visitor’s centre. Here in the tea shop, the Roker Marina, with sculptures of giant 4 Sunderland we had a wonderful treat of a full beaker of nuts and bolts reflecting past industry – and 3 mulled wine and a mince pie, all for £1. to our final destination, the Old North Pier Durham On the road towards Bishop Auckland, the and lighthouse at the mouth of the Wear. 2 sky darkened and the rain came and went, Fishing out our pebbles from the Irish Sea, Kendal 1 creating a fantastic double rainbow arching we tossed them into the North Sea, where Walney across sunlit fields. On the top of a hill, they landed in unison with a splash. Island Joseph was delighted to find a signpost for Paul Gillingham is a CTC member. His the village of Toronto. The next section was tour of New Zealand, to celebrate another eight miles off-road along a disused railway birthday, was in the Dec 02/Jan 03 issue.

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